Melike Pala
29 May 2026•Update: 29 May 2026
French Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan said Thursday that she filed a legal complaint against French authorities over what she described as an "invasion of privacy and abuse of authority" through the targeting of her geolocation data.
"I filed a complaint for invasion of privacy and abuse of authority after the police exploited the geolocation data from my phone," Hassan said on the US social media platform X.
The complaint follows revelations published by the French investigative outlet Mediapart, which reported that officers from the Paris judicial police monitored Hassan's phone activity and tracked her movements beginning Jan. 1, including periods before a formal investigation had been opened.
According to the report, investigators used geolocation data and requisitioned information from transport operators, including France's national railway company SNCF and the international rail service Thalys, as well as her phone provider to map her travel history and contacts.
Hassan denounced the measures as disproportionate and politically motivated.
"The use of prolonged surveillance methods targeting a political opponent is extremely concerning and resembles practices associated with police states," she told Anadolu in April.
The French-Palestinian lawmaker argued that the authorities deliberately attempted to circumvent her parliamentary immunity in order to place her in police custody, in a case linked to an investigation into alleged "apology for terrorism" related to social media posts.
Hassan was arrested in April in France and briefly taken into police custody over a social media post on X.
The post, made in March this year, referred to a 1972 attack at Israel's Lod Airport and included a quote from one of the attackers, which authorities said could be interpreted as an "apology for terrorism."
The publication was reportedly referred to prosecutors by the French interior minister and later by the European Jewish Organization and the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA).
She was detained for questioning, then released the same day, and later formally summoned to appear in court on July 7 as part of the ongoing case.
In written remarks provided to Anadolu, Hassan said the legal proceedings against her are part of what she described as a broader "politico-judicial harassment" campaign that began two years ago.
She said she has already been questioned by police on three separate occasions over similar complaints before the most recent custody measure, all connected to tweets considered by investigators as potentially constituting an apology or glorification of terrorism.
